LOS ANGELES — Eating red meat — any amount and any type — appears to significantly increase the risk of premature death, according to a long-range study that examined the eating habits and health of more than 110,000 adults for more than 20 years.
For instance, adding just one 3-ounce serving of unprocessed red meat — picture a piece of steak no bigger than a deck of cards — to one’s daily diet was associated with a 13 percent greater chance of dying during the course of the study.
Even worse, adding an extra daily serving of processed red meat, such as a hot dog or two slices of bacon, was linked to a 20 percent higher risk of death during the study.
“Any red meat you eat contributes to the risk,” said An Pan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and lead author of the study, published online Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Crunching data from thousands of questionnaires that asked people how frequently they ate a variety of foods, the researchers also discovered that replacing red meat with other foods seemed to reduce mortality risk for study participants.
Eating a serving of nuts instead of beef or pork was associated with a 19 percent lower risk of dying during the study. The team said choosing poultry or whole grains as a substitute was linked with a 14 percent reduction in mortality risk; low-fat dairy or legumes, 10 percent; and fish, 7 percent.
Previous studies had associated red meat consumption with diabetes, heart disease and cancer, all of which can be fatal. Scientists aren’t sure exactly what makes red meat so dangerous, but the suspects include the iron and saturated fat in beef, pork and lamb, the nitrates used to preserve them, and the chemicals created by high-temperature cooking.
13, 20 percent: should already be dead.
The day I give up a good steak or a nice rack of ribs is the day I’m dead. We have been told this and that are bad for us only for a new study to come along a decade later and then they state that those things are now good for you.
The only way I would ever give up red meat is if I was 100% guaranteed to make it to the singularity. Then and only then would I give it up but since nobody can guarantee when the singularity is going to happen I’ll stick to my red meat now and then.
Kevin-
We don’t see eye to eye very often, but i agree with your statement wholeheartedly. Remember the egg debate of the 90’s?
The egg debate was one of the first things that popped into my mind. Then we have the butter debate, the apple debate. We had a study that said red wine was good for you and now they say that study is not true.
I’m 100% for research into helping us live longer but when I read these studies I have a hard time trusting them as accurate.
For breakfast I will have steak n’ eggs (salted), toast with lots of butter, some home fries cooked in margarine and topped with ketchup, and a tall glass of milk. Mmmmmm!
My father pretty much has eaten that sort of breakfast his entire life and he will be 73 this year and he shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Eggs may have cholesterol, but also omega 3s.
Did that study include or consider cows that eat grass, which raises their omega3s? I know farmers in Maine that feed their cattle grass. Did your 73 year old father eat cows that were eating grass, or fed that other stuff cows are fed in places?
I have no clue. He was to busy being a drunk most of his life. A drunk that could function with a job but a drunk none the less.
73, still a drunk and eats tons of grap and still kicking. I’m going to make it till at least 70 that is for sure.
Maybe the alcohol kills all the bad stuff?
My 88 year old father fries his toast in bacon fat, has done it as long as I can remember.
Wait, hold on, when were apples bad for us??? LOL
Just read this….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-100163/Are-apples-good-you.html
I wish I was making this stuff up.
Yep. Besides, have you ever noticed how awful bar-b-q sauce tastes on veggies?
It’s not that bad on peas :-)
I like it on cabbage.
And ribs.
what is singularity?
http://www.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2048601,00.html
And it is coming but we are not sure of the year just yet but it is coming.
Funny though how “scientific” studies are so accurate when they happen to agree with your worldview on other subjects.
Such as?
This deserved a front line article? Sounds like a press release from PITA. Hear that people? All red meat is bad for you. Crunching data from thosands of questionaires? Is it a valid study or not? Amazing what passes as reporting.
This study must be flawed. People should be keeling over in steak houses across the country but it just doesn’t happen. I’ll bet the study was funded by the poultry industry.
I had a New York Strip tonight -an expensive one – and I cooked it on the grill with salt and pepper, cold beer while I grilled it. The aroma was a mix of caramelizing meat and early spring evening. Ate it with a nice salad, some potato salad and a good piece of baguette. I’m not sure that it gets much better than that. Unless it happens on July 4th at the lake.
If meat is so bad for everyone how are we supposed to get protein, the building blocks of life into our diets, and iron for those who need it? Peanuts are missing something and everyone seems to be allergic to peanuts so good luck bringing them anywhere, and I know people who cut out meat almost all were anemic? How could iron be such a culprit?
If we are to believe every study that says something is going kill us we would all be living in bubbles eating organic tofu and soy milk. Instead the average human lifespan continues to rise almost everywhere except countries ravaged by diseases such as AIDS.
My question would be: What were the ages of the people in the study? If they were generally young then very few would have died during the “course of the study”. Of that small group a few random deaths could have skewed the death rate.
Either way, I am still eating my steak and lovin’ it
My guess is the study was completed by PETA…
Been eating red meat since I could chew it. At 74, no sense of quiting now.
News flash: aging correlated with risk of death! Stop aging immediately!
gonna die with a thick bloody ribeye on my plate…
For every study that says one thing there is another saying the opposite. By that studies math, I am well on my way based off the amount of bacon I’ve had over the years and will continue to eat. I know some pretty old people that still eat red meat and they are going strong.
If god wanted me to not eat red meat, he would have made cows out of tofu.
All this time I thought pork was the other white meat.
All I know is Salmon is the other pink meat………
What is the next scandal the Feds are going to come up with. They have nothing better to do. But it does warrant there jobs. Gives then something to ly about.
The Harvard School of Public Health is the Feds ?
Dealing a@sh@les at the Federal level is a problem too. Just about like red stuff the meat.
Original research article:
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/archinternmed.2011.2287
Thanks, nice to have some information instead of reactionary and uninformed opinions.
Oh let me guess Peta paid for the study
Last time I checked, none of us is getting out of this alive. Pass the ribeye.
The sad part of this study is that the writers believe in Global warming. What they don’t realize is that according to a recent study cows farting is the issue that has caused global warming. Now as an American you have a choice be part of the problem and follow this study and live long enough to see the ice caps melt because we didn’t stop the cows from multiping. The other option is to take one for the next generation enjoy all the red meat stop global warming and save the planet! Make your choice. (See how stupid these studies are}
I like eating meat. I’m going to die someday. I choose to deal with it.
The zealots aren’t going to live to be 100, but it will seem like it.
Though I do not argue that there may be some veracity to this study it must be borne in mind that a talented statistician can manipulate numbers to get pretty much any result. I know, that point gets made way too often however allow me to demonstrate:
If a study claims that eating red meat will cause a 20% increase in premature death then one can also say that eating red meat guarantee’s that 80% of the consumers will live a full life. Now doesn’t that sound better?
I would also add that this is a long study, which is good, however over 20 years there can be quite a few mitigating factors such as environment, exercise, genetic predisposition, well you get the idea. The author makes no mention of normalizing the data for these factors.
At least the truth about meat in the diet is finally coming out after years of propaganda from the industry lobbyists. If you still chose to consume red meat in your diet, at least you now are making an informed decision. Bon Appetite
And of course there is the information leaked by the USDA that 70% of the hamburg in this country contains “pink slime”, a product of connective tissue that used to be labeled unfit for human consumption but now is included in processed meat. It was approved for human use by former Bush agriculture secretary Joann Smith who quit her position to become a member of the board of directors of Beef Products Inc. an industry lobbying group. Looks like yet another corporate corrupted official’s decision.
Are they going to tax red meat like cigs now.
Bull!
NEW RESEARCH STUDY shows that 100% of food research studies are a 100% waste of tax-payer money!